Bob Diamond, the former boss of Barclays PLC, has given up bonuses worth up
to £20 million ($31-million U.S.) following his dramatic resignation over an
interest rate-fixing scandal, the bank’s chairman said in parliamentary
testimony on Tuesday.

Marcus Agius, the man at the top of Barclays when its traders manipulated a
benchmark interest rate, appeared before a hostile panel of lawmakers as part of
its investigation into a row that has caused widespread public anger in
Britain.

Libor

Euro Zone

In 2-1/2 hours of gripping testimony, Mr. Agius acknowledged the central bank
governor had played a pivotal role in pushing Mr. Diamond out of his job, and
described the personal drama behind the scandal which erupted last week and
culminated in Mr. Diamond’s resignation.

“I’m not happy to be where I am, as you can imagine,” Mr. Agius told the
panel in a quiet, clipped voice. “It’s very difficult as you go back to say what
you would have done differently.”

Barclays has been fined more than $450-million for its part in manipulating
the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, the interest rate that underpins
transactions worth hundreds of trillions of dollars worldwide. More than a dozen
other banks are expected to be drawn into the scandal.

Mr. Agius was the first Barclays executive to quit when the scandal erupted
but that was not enough to protect Mr. Diamond, the hard-charging American who
was forced out a day later. Mr. Agius has agreed to stay on as executive
chairman to find a successor to Mr. Diamond.

“Bob Diamond has voluntarily decided to forgo any deferred consideration and
deferred bonuses to which he otherwise would have been entitled to,” Mr. Agius,
65, told the panel. “The maximum amount would be £20-million.”

Mr. Diamond, 60, would still receive a year’s pay and a cash payment instead
of a pension, together worth £2-million, he said.

Just before Mr. Agius appeared before the panel, Britain’s financial watchdog
published a scathing letter saying Barclays had frequently pushed the boundaries
of regulation with an “aggressive” business approach.

When asked about the letter, Mr. Agius said: “I don’t regard this as damning.
I regard this as a firm letter from our regulator.”

He added however he had never received a letter that harsh from a regulator
and described his relationship with the Financial Services Authority as
“strained”.

As lawmakers piled criticism on him, Agius looked tense at times, blowing out
his cheeks and shaking his head in disbelief. Mr. Agius interrupted one
committee member sharply at one point to correct the pronunciation of his
surname.

But some MPs appeared less hostile, thanking him for being so
forthcoming.

Shedding light on what went on behind the scenes as the row escalated, Mr.
Agius said Mr. Diamond resigned after the central bank governor summoned
Barclays executives and made it clear that their colleague had to go.

“We explained what had happened ... he was utterly depressed as you can
imagine. The conversation was not long,” Mr. Agius said, who visited Mr. Diamond
at his house in London.

“He asked for time to talk to his family, and we left confident that if he
hadn’t already made the decision, that he would make the right decision.”

Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, has declined to comment on his
involvement in Mr. Diamond’s resignation but he told the BBC in an interview
recorded before the testimony that it was time to change the way Britain’s
banking system worked.

“We don’t have enough banks, and those banks that we have, have become too
big and they dominate the sector in a way that’s rather undesirable,” he
said.

Mr. Diamond’s potential pay-off has been the subject of much speculation in a
country where anger with the culture of bankers strikes a popular chord. One of
the world’s richest bankers, Mr. Diamond took home £17-million last year
alone.

Barclays confirmed Mr. Diamond’s payoff arrangement in a statement which
quoted him as saying he hoped his decision would help the bank move on.

“The wrongful actions of a relative few should not detract from the
outstanding work that Barclays employees carry out each day on behalf of clients
and customers around the world,” he said.

“It is my hope that my decision to step down and today’s agreement on my
remuneration will help close this chapter and allow Barclays to move forward and
prosper.”

Barclays is among more than a dozen global banks under investigation by
authorities in North America, Europe and Japan and the only one so far to admit
wrongdoing.

Suggestions that senior officials may have known about the 2008 manipulation
have turned the case into a political storm, with Prime Minister David Cameron
ordering the parliamentary inquiry to quell public outrage.

Mr. Cameron welcomed Mr. Diamond’s decision to forgo his bonus. The European
Union says it will propose new rules to criminalize the manipulation of indices
such as Libor.

Barclays says a group of traders tried to manipulate Libor for profit as far
back as 2005, and says it wrongly lowered estimates of the interest it paid
other banks at the height of the crisis in 2008 to make its financial position
appear better.

Libor, or the London interbank offered rate, is compiled from estimates by
large international banks of how much they believe they have to pay to borrow
from each other. It is used for $550-trillion (U.S.) of interest rate
derivatives contracts and influences rates on mortgages, student loans and
credit cards.

The rates submitted by banks are compiled by Thomson Reuters, parent company
of Reuters, on behalf of the British Bankers’ Association.

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